Future Soldiers from the Phoenix Recruiting Battalion, recite the oath of enlistment, during a mass enlistment ceremony, Nov. 18, State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Ariz. The ceremony took place shortly before a National Football League game between the Arizona Cardinals and Oakland Raiders. (Photo by Alun Thomas, USAREC Public Affairs)

A federal judge has ruled that a men-only draft is unconstitutional, but he stopped short of ordering the Selective Service System to register women for military service.

The Houston judge sided with a San Diego men's advocacy group that challenged the government's practice of having only men sign up for the draft, citing sex discrimination in violation of the Fifth Amendment's equal protection clause.

"This case balances on the tension between the constitutionally enshrined power of Congress to raise armies and the constitutional mandate that no person be denied the equal protection of the law," wrote U.S. District Judge Gray Miller of the Southern District of Texas.

The lawsuit was filed in 2013 against the Selective Service System by Texas resident James Lesmeister, who later added San Diego resident Anthony Davis and the San Diego-based National Coalition for Men as additional plaintiffs.

The two men had standing to sue the government because they were within the age range of 18 to 26 in which men in the United States are required to register with Selective Service.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. court on Friday ruled in favor of a Trump administration policy barring certain transgender people from serving in the U.S. armed forces, handing the president his first legal victory on the issue after several defeats.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned a decision by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that blocked the policy, saying it likely violates the constitutional rights of transgender recruits and service members.

The Department of Defense announced Dec. 11 that it will again allow transgender applicants to join the military starting Jan. 1, 2018, on the heels of a new court ruling against President Donald Trump’s announced ban on transgender service members.

A federal judge has blocked parts of President Donald Trump's presidential memo banning transgender Americans from military service, setting up a court dispute that the White House and its critics could possibly pursue to the Supreme Court.